Posts Tagged With: money

You should continue more and more to behave in the manner that you received from us as the appropriate way of behaving and of pleasing God. (4:1)

Paul only had a short time with the Thessalonians before he was chased out-of-town. Still, he had discussed how they should behave as Christians. For Paul, ethics were fundamental to the way of Christ.

In this chapter’s discussion of basic ethics and beliefs, it is interesting what Paul discusses: sexuality, money, and death.

This is God’s will, you see: he wants you to be holy, to keep well away from fornication. Each of you should know how to control your own body in holiness and honor, not in the madness of lust like Gentiles who don’t know God. (4:3-5)

Now, about charitable concern for the whole family: I don’t really need to write to you, because you yourselves have been taught by God to show loving care for one another. . . . Work with your hands, just as we commanded you, so that you may behave in a way which outsiders will respect, and so that none of you may be in financial difficulties. (4:9, 11b-12)

Now concerning those who have fallen asleep . . . We don’t want you to have the kind of grief that other people do, people who don’t have any hope. (4:13)

Think about it: aren’t inappropriate thinking and behaviors related to sexuality, money, and death especially dangerous? Each can significantly alter the course of one’s life. A life lived in immorality and licentiousness degrades and endangers others and oneself. Greed makes the turning of a buck the most important goal and people who stand in the way a target for removal. Laziness is contagious and makes many other vices necessary. Unchristian thinking about death may be the least obvious, but consider how life is lived when one believes the grave is the end. There is also a common element in these three: each makes one live in the here and now with no gratification delayed and no thought to the future.

One more thought: is western society not obsessed with sex, money, and a terminal view of death? How important it still is for us to believe that contrasting views about these three topics must be fundamental teachings for young Christians.

I’m giving you a new commandment, and it’s this: love one another! Just as I have loved you, so you must love one another. This is how everybody will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for each other. (13:34-35)

Christians are known by their sacrificial, inconvenient love. Nothing is more of a calling card than love. Not going to church. Not how one votes. Not social policy one supports or opposes. Not one’s moral code. Not whether one takes or refuses that drink offered at a dinner party. Not one’s language. Not bumper stickers or symbols on the back of a car. Not biblical knowledge. Not leadership roles in a church. Not community service. Not parenting styles or the behavior of one’s children. Not the percentage of money given away to others. Christians are known by the degree they allow themselves to serve others at their own expense, their willingness to treat people with kindness and gentleness when they deserve much less, the degree to which we make life not about us but about others.

“They will know we are Christians by our love.” We have sung this since we were children, but we need these regular reminders, don’t we?

Living in the materialistic world we live in, this HAS to be today’s passage. The more calloused and familiar to passages like these that we get, the more we need to hear them, and new wording only helps.

We brought nothing into the world, after all, and we certainly can’t take anything out. If we have food and clothing, we should be satisfied with it. People who want to be rich, by contrast, fall into temptation and a trap, and into many foolish and dangerous lusts which drown people in devastation and destruction. The love of money, you see, is the root of all evil. Some people have been so eager to get rich that they have wandered away from the faith and have impaled themselves painfully in several ways. . . . What about people who are rich in this present world? Tell them not to think of themselves too highly, and to set their hopes, not on something so uncertain as riches, but on the God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous and eager to share. That way, they will treasure up for themselves a good foundation for the future, and thereby come to possess the life which really is life. (6:7-10, 17-19)

Lurking in the background of most Pauline letters is some person, group, or philosophy that threatens the orthodox beliefs and practices of the Christianity that Paul was spreading. This is very much true in the letters to Timothy.

As we start our two weeks with these letters, let’s look at a profile of these “false teachers.”

They teach “false doctrines” (1:3; 6:3)

They want to be “teachers of the law” (1:7)

They base their teachings on myths not facts and genealogies not stories (1:4; 4:7)

They come off as conceited (1:7; 6:4)

They are argumentative, produce controversy, and disrupt the peace in the church (1:4; 6:4; 2 Tim 2:23)

They were full of meaningless and foolish talk, showing that they don’t really know what he are talking about (1:6-7; 6:4; 2 Tim 2:23)

They encouraged asceticism (4:3)

They used their authority for financial gain (6:5)

When you put this all together, this sketch does not produce a definitive identity. Clearly, like many of Paul’s opponents, they were tying the Jewish law to the way of Christ. The asceticism and emphasis on myth and genealogy could come from Judaism or from an early version of Gnosticism that was becoming popular in Asia Minor especially.

Maybe the most important point about these false teachers is what Paul says today:

That sort of thing breeds disputes rather than the instruction in faith that comes from God. The goal of such instruction is love — the love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith. (1:4-5)

This was a false teaching that emphasized the obscure and ineffectual while neglecting the most important elements of the way of Christ: faith, love, and purity.

What does a Christian leader look like today who is similar to these false teachers?

There has been a whole lot of talk about strength in the Corinthian correspondence this past month. Strong leaders, strong reasoning and speaking skills, a strong tolerance for sin (though too strong for Paul’s liking), a strong sense of grace (again, too strong), strong pocketbooks, strong charisma and gifting, strong leaders, strong egos, and strong boasts. Corinth was a culture of strength, and so was this church.

We have already seen Paul say there are other strengths to have that are far more important. They need a strong sense of unity that bridges the many divides they have allowed to form in their church. They need a strong love towards each other shown through character, not spiritual gifts. They need a strong spirit of generosity so as to help those who have real need in the world. Today, Paul ends these two volumes with one more kind of true strength the Corinthians should be sure to have in a culture that seems hyper-focused on strength. They would do well to be strong in doing the right thing.

Test yourselves to see if you really are in the faith! Put yourselves through the examination. Or don’t you realize that Jesus the Messiah is in you? — unless, that is, you’ve failed the test. I hope you will discover that we didn’t fail the test. But we pray to God that you will never, ever do anything wrong; not so that we can be shown up as having passed the test, but so that you will do what is right. (13:7)

What big idea really stood out to you during this year’s reading of the Corinthian correspondence?

“There is only so much” or “There is enough to go around” — which do you tend to believe?

“The early bird gets the worm” or “There is enough to share” — which one tends to describe how you see material resources?

“Get your’s while you can” or “It is a blessing to share” — which is it?

The American worldview certainly holds that there is a limited number of resources and we are in competition with each other to get those. Of course, that belief shapes our perceptions and then we accept it to be unquestionably true. And if we count our needs in millions and billions of dollars, maybe this view is true. But when we think realistically, isn’t there more than enough to go around?

Walter Brueggemann, a favorite author of mine, calls this belief the “myth of scarcity.” Americans seem to believe it, but so did many in Israel in the Old Testament. That is why the rich got richer and the poor poorer and the prophets railed against social injustice. The prophetic imagination of seers like Micah dared Israel (and us still today) to believe that we lived in abundance.

He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide.They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.Every man will sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree,and no one will make them afraid, for the Lord Almighty has spoken. (Micah 4:3-4)

Hoarding is not necessary, because each can have his own. Brother does not need to compete with brother because we both can have more than enough. Jesus feed five thousand and there was still twelve baskets of bread to spare.

It is this same vision that guides Paul in today’s passage.

Someone who sows sparingly will reap sparingly as well. Someone who sows generously will reap generously. Everyone should do [give] as they have determined in their heart, not in a gloomy spirit or simply because they have to, since “God loves a cheerful giver.” And God is well able to lavish all his grace [gifts, including material resources] upon you, so that in every matter and in every way you will have enough of everything, and may be lavish in all your own good works, Just as the Bible says: “They spread their favors wide, they gave to the poor; their righteousness endures forever.” The one who supplies “seed to be sown and bread to eat” will supply and increase your seed and multiply the yield of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way in all single-hearted goodness, which is working through us to produce thanksgiving to God. The service of this ministry will not only supply what God’s people so badly need, but it will also overflow with many thanksgivings to God. (9:6-12)

As the Corinthians get ready to receive Paul who will be looking for the contribution they had previously promised to give to the famine relief efforts in Jerusalem (9:1-5), Paul exhorts them to view this with a vision of abundance, not the myth of scarcity. So too for us. Anytime we are called upon to give to provide for those who are under-resourced at the time (notice that this passage is not talking about giving to meet the budget of the church) we will need the same perspective. We can be “cheerful givers” because the anxiety of competing for the same dollar does not need to rule our hearts. God is able to pour down blessings on us in such a lavish way that we will have everything we need (of course, “need” and “want” are two different words). We can also be cheerful givers when we acknowledge the result of unselfish living: “thanksgiving to God.” The myth of scarcity makes us turn others into competition and weigh the perceived right others have to our money. A vision of abundance makes it easier to melt our selfish hearts and uncurl our greedy fingers, and that is when praise and thanksgiving are born.

Today is Labor Day in America, a day we celebrate the worker, the most important cog in the machine of capitalism. Ironically, we celebrate the day by not working (and I am super cool with that!) We work to provide for ourselves and for others. Instead of turning this procurement of resources into a competition, can we dare to trust that God will provide all that is needed and that he might be using us to provide for others for a time?

When have you been surprised by how abundant God’s material blessings truly are?

We are now solidly in the section where Paul beseeches the Corinthians to imitate the generous giving of the Macedonians. This is likely referring to the collection Paul was accumulating for the famine-striken Christians in Jerusalem. Paul’s pitch rivals anything I have ever heard in any church capital campaign!

It is this line that catches my attention today:

The abundance of grace that was given to them (the Macedonians), and the depths of poverty they have endured, have overflowed in a wealth of sincere generosity on their part. (8:2)

I am wondering if these are the two most important elements to being a generous giver.

When we become truly aware of how much grace and how many gifts have been given to us by God, a grateful heart is produced. Maybe gratefulness far outweighs expendable income as a key motivator for lavish giving.

It appears the Macedonians knew what poverty was like. They must have had some lean years themselves. They could relate to the plight of the Christians in Jerusalem. Maybe empathy and compassion goes much further towards producing a generous heart than pity or an intellectual sense of responsibility.

We know from history that Judea was suffering from a famine at this point in time. The Jewish Christians in Jerusalem and the surrounding area were suffering from a famine. For the Christians their problems were only compounded by the growing animosity between Jews and Christians and how this cut them off from the normal infrastructure of life.

We can tell from this letter and others that Paul had made it part of his mission to help the Jewish Christians by collecting money from Gentile Christians in Asia Minor, Macedonia, and Achaia in order to bring relief when he soon visited Jerusalem. Paul is discussing this in this chapter. As a matter of logistics, Paul recommends that the Corinthians set aside their surplus money each week in order to have a store of money for the collection when he finally does visit Corinth on his way to Jerusalem.

On the first day of each week, every one of you should set aside and store up whatever surplus you have gained, so that when I come I won’t have to take an actual collection. (16:2)

I am struck by Paul’s encouragement to the Corinthians (and to us) to be intentional in their giving. This isn’t spur of the moment. This is not a plea to give what you can spare. This isn’t “brother, can you spare a dime?” This is planned, purposeful giving and sacrifice over a number of months. That is a good example.

These are all ministers, well-known from their television presence, who have either been convicted of financial malfeasance in their ministry or have been investigated for such because of their lavish lifestyles. I am afraid that there are whole sections of America that think of people like these first when they think of Christian ministers. For these people, closely associated with church and church leaders is greed and exploitation of followers in order to line the pockets of those leaders.

Today, we learn that Paul was being accused of the same things. We have been progressively piecing together a picture of Paul’s opponents in Corinth. It would appear there is a group of leaders in the Corinthian church who have arrived only recently who are picking away at Paul’s authority in the church by making people question his credentials (chapters 1-4) and now his motives. We can divine from this chapter that they are suggesting Paul is taking advantage of the Corinthians financially in order to benefit his own bottom-line.

Paul’s response is two-pronged. First, he defends his right to support. This is only fair and lawful. Basic life practices show we owe people for what they do for us. It is only right to pay those who minister. For goodness sake, a farmer doesn’t even deprive an ox his due. It is entirely inappropriate and unbiblical to pay a minister a subsistence wage for his or her work. On the other end of the spectrum, we should also ask ourselves whether we can pay a minister so much that it actually begins to hurt him or her spiritually?

However, Paul’s second point was that if they remember correctly, he never even exercised his right to support in order not to give people like these accusers a foothold for scandal. He supported himself through tent-making. He willfully gave up his freedom so as to be as free from accusation as possible:

But we haven’t made use of this right. Instead, we put up with everything , so as to place no obstacle in the way of the Messiah’s gospel. . . . I am indeed free from everyone; but I have enslaved myself to everyone, so that I can win all the more. (9:12, 19)

It is unconscionable to think we can pay a minister well below the average income in a church or community just because they are a minister. Ministers don’t take oaths of poverty. We are saying how much we value these noble people and their work with we pay them a pittance. But in a culture where accusations and realities of ministerial greed do exist, we probably ought to consider whether it is wise to compensate a minister well above the median income of the church of a community or for a minister to live a lavish life. We certainly owe a minister his or her due, but we also owe it to Christ to do whatever we can to “win all the more” and in America that means money is always part of the equation.

As we read through Luke, we keep coming back to money. That is no surprise, knowing Luke is the “social justice gospel.” Luke’s Jesus talks about money almost as much as Matthew’s Jesus attacked the Jewish religious leaders.

Is it wrong to be rich? That’s a loaded question. It is also an impossible question because “rich” is entirely relative. Are you rich if you make more than $50K in America as that is roughly the median household income? Are you rich if you have three cars? Are you rich if you have one car and don’t have to ride the bus? If you are a welfare mother in Memphis with four kids to feed, you are poor, right? But isn’t she rich compared to a many people in Africa or a leper in the slums of Calcutta? And does how you use your money make you more or less rich? And what do you have to do to not be rich? How much do you have to give away? Do you have to stop clothing your kids at Aeropostale and shop at Wal-Mart instead? But aren’t you still spending more than at Goodwill? You can always give up more, so trying to draw a line between poor and rich seems a bit arbitrary, slippery, and maybe even self-serving.

Here is a better question: Does wealth make following Jesus harder? I feel much more comfortable answering that one, and “rich” can remain as relative as it clearly is. It seems Luke’s answer is a resounding “yes.”

Jesus saw that he [the rich young ruler] had become sad, and said, “How hard it is for those with possessions to enter God’s kingdom! Yes: it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter God’s kingdom.” (18:24-25)

First let’s deal with Jesus’ wording and one misconception: I like the way N. T. Wright phrases the first part of Jesus’ response, “those with possessions.” This is a reminder that the real issue in possessing something with clenched fists as if it is our own and with an unwillingness to let it go. Rich people can do this. But poor people can too. Trying to serve our selfish desires while also serving God, that is when the problems come. Next, there once was a belief that there was a now-lost gate in ancient Jerusalem called “the eye of the needle” that was very short, so short that camels had to get down on their knees to crawl through, and that this is what Jesus was referring to here. Hence, it is not impossible for a camel to go through the “eye of the needle,” and it is not impossible for rich people to enter God’s kingdom. However, F. F. Bruce and others have made it clear that there is absolutely no archaeological evidence for such a gate, and the next two verses make it clear that Jesus is talking about an impossible feat.

Does having money make some things in life easier? Certainly. That is why most parents get a bit nervous when our kids say they want to grow up to be artists and musicians, not dentists and pharmaceutical salespeople. That is often why we encourage people to stay in school (there are better reasons, but let’s be real about a lot of people’s motivations). That is why we encourage our kids to work hard, to seek promotions, to save, to eliminate debt, to invest and squirrel away for retirement. The American Dream — I daresay, all of capitalism — is based on the belief that money makes life better or easier and we wouldn’t be going on three hundred years of American capitalism if it were not at least partially true.

But in a culture like America (and Canada and Europe and free Asia and so much of this “flat earth,” as Thomas Friedman called it) where the philosophy of materialism (all that exists is that which is tangible and material) and the practice of affluence (let’s have as much of that material as possible, because it will make me happy and solve my problems) are part of the dominant worldview that is in opposition to that described in the Bible, it is absolutely imperative that we hear Jesus clearly here and decide whether we really believe what he is saying. This is a proverbial “line in the sand.” Attachment to material possessions makes following Jesus harder. It becomes easier to become attached to material possessions the more we become able to attain possessions (i.e., when we are rich, whatever that means in a given context). The more we have, the more we feed the desire to have. The more we try to satiate our needs with stuff, the more we teach ourselves that stuff makes us happy, thus do what it takes to be able to procure stuff. These are not comfortable words to write. They are very indicting. They confront the very culture most, if not all of us, are living in. But they seem to be what Jesus is saying.

Let me end with a concrete example of what I am talking about here. Each summer and often once or twice during the school year, a group of my students and adult friends travel to an orphanage in Ghana, West Africa that we help support at our school. These kids come from nothing and, though their quality of life at the orphanage is actually pretty good by African standards, they still lack much of what we would call essential. Nonetheless, the most common statement I hear from students who return from Ghana is this: “I wish I were there. I can’t wait to go back. Life is so much simpler there. Those kids know what really matters. They teach me that so much of what I have is unnecessary. I think they are actually happier than I am.”

Could it be that our affluence is, in fact, making life with God harder?

Someone who is faithful in a small matter will also be faithful in a large one. Someone who is dishonest in a small matter will also be dishonest in a large one. If you haven’t been faithful with that wicked thing called money, who is going to entrust you with true wealth? (16:10-11)

What constitutes “faithfulness” in this passage?

I think I have always answered that question the way Dave Ramsey or Larry Burkett might want me to. “Faithful” means managing your money in such a way that you do not lose it and maybe you even gain more. Faithful is financial.

But then I see the word “dishonest” in verse 10, so maybe faithful is ethical. Being faithful with money means not cheating your employer or not selling junk bonds or something like that.

Then we keep reading on in the chapter and I am wondering if Luke doesn’t tell us himself what “faithful” means. Luke gives us a story contrasting the life of a rich man who has “received good things” (16:25) but goes on to an eternal punishment and a poor man named Lazarus who would have settled for “scraps that fell from the rich man’s table” (16:21) but receives a blessed afterlife. The implication is that the rich man is being punished for how he has treated or, maybe better said, neglected Lazarus. If Luke intends for us to read these stories together, then “faithful” is social. To be faithful means to be compassionate, to care for others, and to use the money with which God entrusts us to ensure the people in our life have what they need, not simply to serve our own interests.

I think there maybe no more timely verses for this world than these from today’s reading:

Watch out and beware of all greed! Your life doesn’t consist of the sum total of your possessions. . . . So don’t go hunting about for what to eat or what to drink, and don’t be anxious. The nations of the world go searching for all that stuff, and your father knows you need it. This is what you should search for: God’s kingdom! Then all the rest will be given you as well. (12:15, 29-32)

I don’t know a modern American Christian for whom greed and anxiety over money is not a temptation at least potentially. That is what comes when you live in a culture focused on money and materialism.

I don’t think there are any great secrets to conquering greed, at least not in our context (maybe you know one?). I only conclude that with prayer and accountability we have to raise this struggle to the conscious level and fight it aggressively. Maybe we ask ourselves why we are purchasing what we do. Maybe we regularly deny ourselves certain intended purchases and extravagances. I know spending time in environments far less affluent helps considerably. So too does the practice of sacrificial giving to others. Another big help is what Jesus says here. Get busy trying to advance God’s kingdom and little by little, over a lifetime maybe, the trinkets of this world become less attractive. At least that is what I am telling myself.

How do you fight greed, anxiety about money, and the temptation to be materialistic?

This chapter has an interesting pairing of stories. One deals with sex and the other with money. The Pharisees ask Jesus about marriage, divorce and sexuality. Then a rich young man wants to know how to inherit eternal life and the conversation quickly turns to his wealth.

If there are any two topics that so obsess the modern American mind they would have to be sex and money. Both are everywhere and behind many a motivation, temptation and scandal. We have even found ways to combine the two in this culture. What I am seeing today is that it may not have been a great deal different in ancient Palestine either.

It is interesting how many times this pairing shows up elsewhere in Scripture too. Jacob was as intent on stealing a birthright from his brother as he was to marry Rachel. The two biggest topics in the introduction to Proverbs (chapters 1-9) — a book likely written to young men — were how to handle sex and money. In the Pastoral Epistles, books written to give instructions on godly leaders, Paul has to discuss sexuality and money in each. In Revelation, the whore of Babylon (that is, Rome) is sexually immoral and financially unjust and exploitive. The examples could go on.

Don’t get me wrong, the issue is neither sex nor money, as if either is inherently evil. The problems are immorality and greed, respectively. Cover to cover in the Bible we find condemnations of these vices.

How do kingdom-people relate to both of these topics? I believe the answer comes sandwiched between these two stories:

Then children were brought to Jesus for him to lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples spoke sternly to them. But Jesus said, “Let the children come to me! Don’t stop them! They are the sort the kingdom of heaven belongs to!” And he laid his hands on them. (18:13-15)

Kingdom-people are child-like. We saw that point in the last chapter too (18:3-5) and Jesus’ point there was to become humble like children. Here the point seems to be innocence and focus. Children still live in that wonderfully naive world of purity, at least ideally. An awareness of sexuality and money — and with that awareness the accompanying temptation to misuse each — is still in the future. Much like Jesus’ instructions to not be focused on sex, like a eunuch could not be (19:11-12), and like the disciples who were willing to leave all material possessions behind to follow Jesus (19:27), children are able to focus with abandon on the task before them.

Likewise, kingdom-people have a task that takes focus. There is a world that needs them. They cannot be taken off-task by the pursuit of sexual fulfillment or the love of money. They operate by faith knowing that God will take care of their needs, yes, even these needs.

How difficult it is for the wealthy to enter the kingdom of God! . . . It’s very hard to enter the kingdom of God! It would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter God’s kingdom. (10:23-25)

Read on. This is no diatribe against money.

What if we have turned the phrase “enter the kingdom of God” into something other than what Jesus meant?

What if it doesn’t mean “go to heaven” like some people make it seem? What if this idea that there is some entrance test to heaven and people who love money can’t pass the test isn’t really what this means? What if the kingdom that one would want to enter isn’t “out there” or “up there?” What if it isn’t a “when you die” thing?

What if this kingdom is a “right here, right now” thing, as we saw in Mark 1 and a few other places so far? What if the kingdom is a new “age” (10:17) or era or system or way of seeing reality that can come on a Tuesday afternoon in the line at the grocery store when we really begin to see, accept and act on things like Jesus wanted us to? What if God is wanting to create that new kingdom with and through us, right here and now, as we start living the way of Jesus in the everyday of life?

What if we enter the kingdom when we stop acting like adults and start acting more like children (10:14-15)?

What if we enter the kingdom when we think heavenly treasure is more valuable than earthly wealth (10:21)?

What if we enter the kingdom when we think the impossible is possible (10:27)?

What if we enter the kingdom when we leave behind what we have held dear before, only to receive the same back again and with greater abundance (10:29-30)?

What if we enter the kingdom from the back of the line, not the front (10:31)?

What if we enter the kingdom when we think the greatest among us are the servants, slaves, and saviors (10:43-45)?

Or at least, what if we begin to enter the kingdom when all of this becomes true in us?